State barns conference visiting county

Jarred Opatz Published: February 24, 2007 4:00 AM

By JARRED OPATZT-G Special Projects EditorSince Ashland County's 2003 barn survey, Bob and Nancy Rowland have been trying to get the Friends of Ohio Barns Conference to the area.The Mohican Township couple will see that wish come true March 30 and 31 and April 1 when the annual conference comes to Ashland and Richland counties."We're excited because the Ashland County Barns (& Rural Heritage Society) is going to display all 1,400-plus pictures from the 2003 survey at (Malabar Farm's) Big Barn Sunday," said Nancy, an active member of Ashland County Barns with her husband.FOB is a non-profit organization formed in 2001 to promote awareness of the significance of Ohio's older barns.Nancy, who also is secretary of FOB, said the conference also seems to draw the most people when it's in the central part of the state.Last year, it was in the northeastern part the state and didn't draw as well as the FOB organization would have liked, said Bob, FOB vice president.In addition to being in the central part of the state, Nancy said there are several other reasons this year's conference should be a good draw -- Ashland County's barn survey, Malabar Farm and keynote speaker of the conference, Rudy Christian, has done a lot of barn work at Malabar. Christian, an FOB board member from Wayne County, is a well-known barn expert, according to the Rowlands.Ashland County Barns & Rural Heritage Society members also will be serving coffee and doughnuts and talking about the survey in the hopes of getting more counties involved in a similar survey at one of the stops on the barn tour March 30.The highlight of the conference each year is the barn tour, the Rowlands said. This year, the tour will have seven barns -- six of them in Ashland County (Brian Funk's barn near Jeromesville, Tom and Dianne Reed's barn near Ashland, Phil and Ann Myers' barn near Ashland, Jeff and Jon Byers' barn near Loudonville that inventor Charles Kettering built in 1918, Tom and Lorie Ambrose's barn near Loudonville and Ed Taylor's barn near Jeromesville)."You try to get a variety of styles," Bob said about how they decided which local barn owners to ask to be on the tour.Just as the barn owners on the tour aren't FOB members, the conference isn't just for FOB members. People also can just sign up for the all-day barn tour. It begins 7:45 a.m. at the Holiday Inn in downtown Mansfield, where the conference will be headquartered, and wrap up by 5:45 p.m.Two tour buses will visit the barns, which will be open for people to see inside."If you go down on the road and you see barns, you love looking at them, but until you go inside a barn, you don't know how old it is or anything about it," Nancy said.The one barn from Richland County, Spring Mill Furniture Barn, was the winner of last year's FOB Barn of the Year Award for Adaptive Use. FOB also gives an award for Barn of the Year for Continued Agricultural Use. Both awards are announced at the conference Saturday.Nominations for this year's Barn of the Year awards still are being accepted. To nominate a barn the following information must be submitted: some history of the barn, description of unique features, current and former uses and interior and exterior photos. Nominations should be sent to Dan Troth, Friends of Ohio Barns, 7591 Perry Road, Delaware, Ohio, 43015 or e-mail information and photos to droth@columbus.rr.com.Saturday's events at the Holiday Inn will include several speakers besides Christian, as well as several hands-on workshops and demonstrations."If you have any repairs you want to do to your barn, this is a good place to come and learn about that," Nancy said. "We have a barn repair panel that you can bring your barn pictures to and ask them how to fix something."Saturday will end with a dinner, silent auction and entertainment at 6:30 p.m. at the Holiday Inn."Saturday night is more of a social time where you can talk to other barn owners and find out what their problems are," Nancy said.The conference will wrap up Sunday morning with a breakfast at Malabar Farms served by Loudonville FFA Alumni. That's where the barn survey pictures will be on display.Nancy and Bob said they hope having those photos on display will help attract local people to the conference."I think it's really going to be fun," Nancy said.For more information about the conference or to register, people can call the Rowlands at 419-368-3803, visit FOB's Web site, ohiobarns.osu.edu, or e-mail friendsohiobarns@aol.com.n Jarred Opatz can be reached at 419-281-0581, ext. 256, or by e-mail at jopatz@times-gazette.com, regarding this story and other story ideas.